Bicycle Mechanics - Wheel Building Troubles

Hi all,

Hoping for some help I'm trying to get to grips with my first wheel build. I've have successfully laced a rear wheel using Sheldon Browns guide, it was fairly straight forward as it was exactly the same lacing as his example on the site: 36 hole rim 3 cross lacing. So I was feeling naively confident going into the front wheel build.

Anyway I am having troubles lacing it up, I checked my spoke lengths several times with different sources and thought I had it right but I can only think that its the cause of the problem - when I start to lace the leading spokes after about the 4th spoke the hub skews and the spokes don't reach the nipple in the hole. Does this symptom sound familiar to anyone?

Here's the build spec:

Dura Ace HB7600 laced to Velocity Deep V 32 hole rim with 268mm 2.0/1.8 DT competition spokes with a two cross lacing.

Do these seem correct? I can't get spocalc to work on my computer so I can't double check them.

Much obliged,

Jon

This happens to me from time to time, and is usually caused by the first set of spokes not seating properly in the eyelets. Try jiggling the hub and rotating it so that the trailing spokes are pulled taught. Also, how tight are you putting the nipples? I try to do just 5 or 6 turns of the screwdriver just to make sure the threads caught.

I just entered your hub and rim into Spocalc and for a 32H Dura Ace front hub and Velocity Deep V rim laced 2X, the recommended spoke length is 273.3 mm

268mm spokes are the right size - beer/incompetence/tiredness were the problem.

268mm spokes are the right size - beer/incompetence/tiredness were the problem.

he he beer. :thumb:

..when I start to lace the leading spokes after about the 4th spoke the hub skews and the spokes don't reach the nipple in the hole. Does this symptom sound familiar to anyone?
Been there a time or two, for me it's usually been down to trying to attach the 2X spoke to the 3X nipple position.